The business end of Chelsea’s UEFA Conference League campaign starts tonight, and club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton are primed and prepped for the Danish capital…
Chelsea and Copenhagen were the two top-ranked sides at the outset of the competition in terms of the UEFA coefficients and the winners after next week's finale at Stamford Bridge will face Molde or Legia Warsaw in the quarter-finals.
The Londoners have had a clear eight days to rest and prepare for the first leg of this Round of 16 tie, whereas the Danish league leaders travelled to Aalborg on Sunday evening, drawing 0-0.
The Blues enjoyed a perfect league stage, winning all six fixtures to top the table, while the Lions finished 19th and had to overcome Heidenheim 4-3 on aggregate in the play-offs to progress.
Cole Palmer, Trevoh Chalobah and Mathis Amougou have been added to Chelsea's squad but Wes Fofana and Romeo Lavia will miss out on the knockout rounds as their workload is managed.
Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu and Noni Madueke have also not travelled to Denmark due to their respective injuries.
Key additions for the hosts include goalkeeper Diant Ramaj on loan from Dortmund and highly-rated homegrown teenager Roony Bardghji.
Chelsea scored 26 goals in the previous stage – more than three times the Lions’ share – and conceded five compared to the Danes’ nine.
Despite the temperature, the miked-up drummer and the impressive organised chanting, Chelsea have won on all three occasions we have played at the sold-out Parken Stadion – twice against Copenhagen and most recently Nordsjaelland in 2012.
Man City won 3-1 there a year ago at this stage of the Champions League, but Man United were beaten 4-3 in the group games.
The Blues will be targeting a fourth successive away victory in Europe as we attempt to bring home an advantage for the second leg next Thursday.
Chelsea vs Copenhagen – the history
Tonight’s hosts are the product of a 1991 merger between Boldklubben 1893 (B93) and Kjobenhavns Boldklub, or KB, to form FCK. Our connections with both go way back.
Copenhagen was the venue for the Pensioners’ first ever overseas match way back in May 1906, a 6-2 win against B93. That game was part of the post-season European tour in which George Hilsdon set himself on the road to legend by filling his boots with goals.
English football’s first great overseas star was Chelsea’s amateur wing-half Nils Middelboe (1913-23). ‘The Great Dane’ was signed from KB and returned there later as a director, arranging special friendlies with Chelsea in 1946 and again five years later for KB’s 75th anniversary.
That second visit came during the Blues’ miraculous escape from relegation in April/May 1951. Bottom of the table, Willie Birrell’s team needed to win all of their last four games to have any chance of survival.
Remarkably, they won the first three and faced a make-or-break final day against Bolton at the Bridge. However, straight after victory at Fulham the week before, they had flown from Northolt to Copenhagen to play Middelboe’s club on Sunday afternoon.
The Londoners won 2-1 in front of 30,000 including the King of Denmark – and sensibly cancelled another exhibition game planned for later in the week.
They returned home exhausted, but somehow, in the crucial last game and with nine of the same personnel, beat Bolton 4-0 to complete the four-game miracle, and survive with a 0.044 superior goal average to relegated Sheffield Wednesday's.
Forty-seven years later, the two sides met in round two of the Cup Winners’ Cup, holders Chelsea prevailing 2-1 on aggregate. The winner came in Copenhagen from the Blues’ Danish winger Brian Laudrup – a day before he joined them.
The Champions League Round of 16 of February 2011 brought the most recent reunion, former Chelsea winger Jesper Gronkjaer was then part of Copenhagen’s side. Goals in either half from Nicolas Anelka put Carlo Ancelotti’s team in charge and the second leg at the Bridge finished 0-0.
Conference League knockout stage regulations
The ‘away goals’ rule does not apply in the knockout stages. In the event of a draw after 90 minutes of the second leg the teams will play extra time and, if necessary, a penalty shoot-out.
The Video Assistant Referee system is used in this competition.
A player receiving three cautions will serve a one-match suspension. All yellow cards expire on completion of the quarter-finals and are not carried into the semi-finals.
No Chelsea players are on the two-bookings tightrope. Copenhagen’s Mohamed Elyounoussi, Rodrigo Huescas and Marcos Lopez, though, will miss the second leg in London should they see yellow this evening.
Should Chelsea and Tottenham both reach their respective quarter-finals UEFA have stipulated the Blues’ home and away legs for that round will be reversed. The same applies to the semi-finals.
The final is set for Wednesday 28 May 2025 at the Wroclaw Stadium, Wroclaw, Poland.
The winners of this competition qualify for the league stage of the 2025/26 UEFA Europa League.
Know this…
Christopher Nkunku has had a hand in eight goals in five games in this competition (proper) to date (five goals, three assists). He also scored in both of the qualifying round matches against Servette.
Marc Guiu, who misses out tonight through injury, is the competition’s joint leading marksman with six goals and has recorded the most shots on target (12).
Only five players in this season’s competition have regained possession of the ball more than FCK centre-back Gabriel Pereira.
Chelsea’s first ever competitive fixture in European competitions was away to Frem of Copenhagen in the 1958/59 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a 3-1 win.
The Blues’ 1-0 win at Copenhagen on 5 November 1998 was the first time the club fielded a full team plus substitutes who were all full internationals.
Chelsea have not lost a game in March in any competition for nearly six years, winning 18 and drawing four since a loss at Goodison Park on 17 March 2019.
The Blues are targeting a club record seventh successive win in European competition – the current run of six equalled our 2018/19 Europa League spree.